Mumbai Congress head Sanjay Nirupam insists on fielding Singh from the North against his demand for a seat from North-West or North-Central
Kripashankar Singh
Former city Congress president and ex-minister Kripashankar Singh has landed in the soup following suggestions of fielding him from a BJP-dominated Mumbai North Lok Sabha constituency. Singh had earlier asked for a seat from either the Mumbai North-West or the Mumbai North-Central constituencies but the party has reportedly picked city party president Sanjay Nirupam (against Shiv Sena) and Priya Dutt (against BJP) for these.
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According to party insiders, Milind Deora has been finalised for Mumbai South, while Eknath Gaikwad and Bhalchandra Munagekar are in the reckoning for South-Central. The North-East seat has been given to the Nationalist Congress Party in a seat-sharing arrangement.
Settling scores
Sources said that Nirupam has smartly suggested Singh for the constituency that he had lost miserably in 2014, when Singh, as the city Congress president, had recommended his name. In 2009, Nirupam had won the North seat because of the splitting of votes by the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena but lost to BJP's Gopal Shetty in 2014. City general secretary Bhushan Patil and industrialist Mahesh Chaturvedi, a close aide of Maharashtra Congress president Ashok Chavan, are also in the reckoning. BJP will field Shetty from the Mumbai North segment yet again.
Congress insiders said that Singh has opposed Nirupam's candidature in North-West and is leading a campaign to remove him from the city president's post. All the probable candidates last week shared the dais with Rahul Gandhi who confirmed the candidatures of Deora, Dutt and Nirupam. Nirupam could not be reached because he was travelling.
'Will accept party's choice'
Singh stood his ground. He said Nirupam should contest from Mumbai North because he had been a MP from there and lost the last elections. "Changing the constituency by the president will send a wrong signal to the party workers. He has the potential to win and he must fight it out," Singh told mid-day on Wednesday. Singh said he had asked for a ticket from Mumbai North-West in 2009, but the party had barred unit presidents from contesting elections.
"My claim is still there because the party workers in North-West want me as a candidate. In 2009, the party fielded late Gurudas Kamat from North-West and he won. Had Kamat been alive today the question of me asking for a ticket wouldn't arise," he said, adding that he would accept whatever the party decides. The Congress's screening committee is expected to meet in Delhi on Thursday and Friday to finalise the list of candidates. Nirupam is already in the capital, said a person close to the leader.
Chief minister to meet Uddhav Thackeray
After sealing the pact with the Shiv Sena, CM Devendra Fadnavis will visit Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray's residence today to fine-tune the sharing of seats. What seems to have prompted the CM to meet Thackeray is a tussle between state BJP president Raosaheb Danve and Sena minister Arjun Khotkar over the Jalana seat. Danve is a sitting MP in Jalana where Khotkar wants to contest. The two leaders have been fighting for the past four years to claim dominance in the region. Khotkar met Fadnavis on Tuesday and Thackeray on Wednesday. He said his party boss's decision would be final. Other than Jalana, the leaders are expected to discuss exchanging seats and other issues before their respective candidate lists are announced.
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